By Dan Ambrose: A fight between former WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (31-0, 18 KOs) and former two division world champion Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (33-3-1, 18 KOs) is in the works for the fall, according to Fighthype.com.
For the 27-year-old Garcia, it’s a slight step up from his last fight against Paulie Malignaggi earlier this month. Garcia totally dominated the light hitting Malignaggi in stopping him in the 9th round of a one-sided contest.
This is yet another soft fight for Danny Garcia, who has been moving at a glacial pace in terms of getting accustomed to the welterweight division. Garcia has had two catch-weight fights in the welterweight division against Rod Salka and Lamont Peterson. He didn’t move up the full weight for the 147lb division until the Malignaggi fight.
That was a disappointing opponent for Garcia because Malignaggi hasn’t fought in over a year, and he was no longer ranked in the top 15 by any of the boxing sanctioning bodies. Guerrero is ranked #10 WBA, #10 WBC, but that ranking is very generous considering what he’s done inside the ring in the last two years.
Danny Garcia, #2 WBC, needs to be facing better opposition than this. If he’s going to burn through another year of his career facing weak opposition, he’s going to find himself with little to show for what he accomplished in his career in 2014 and 2015.
Those are two lost years for Garcia. What could potentially happen for Garcia is him getting beaten when he does finally face a quality contender at 147, and that in turn will very likely result in Garcia moving back down in weight to 140 for him to try and resume his dominance in that weight class. The negative about all of this is Garcia will have wasted two years of his career with catch-weight fights and weak opposition trying to get acclimatized to the welterweight division.
It appears that Garcia is being kept in the slow lane on purpose until Floyd Mayweather Jr. retires and gives up his WBA and WBC welterweight titles. With his No.2 rankings by the WBC, Garcia is in position to fight for the WBC title once Mayweather retires at the end of the year or next year. Garcia would be fighting possibly someone like No.1 WBC Amir Khan if he’s interested in fighting for the WBC title.
Guerrero, 32, has gone downhill from when he first moved up to the welterweight division back in 2012. Guerrero has been soundly beaten by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013 and Keith Thurman in March of this year in losing one-sided 12 round decision losses. In Guerrero’s last fight against journeyman Alan Martinez, he was knocked down in the 4th round and wound up taking a beating in the process of winning a very, very controversial 10 round split decision.
Many boxing fans thought Guerrero lost that fight. But whether he lost it or not, the fight showed that Guerrero is no longer the same fighter he was back in 2012 and earlier. Guerrero is now struggling to beat 2nd tier fighters. In June of 2014, Guerrero had to fight hard to defeat Yoshihiro Kamegai by a 12 round decision. Guerrero took a lot of punishment in that fight and wound up with a badly swollen right eye.
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